Crash! Bang! Boom! goes the action in “Vantage Point.” Though not necessarily in that order.
A final-act car chase with its collateral smash-ups dents director Pete Travis’ taut, if gimmicky, thriller some.
But before it swerves toward action boilerplate, “Vantage Point” makes nice use of the heft of Dennis Quaid, Forest Whitaker, William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver in a story in which an assassination followed by an explosion gets revisited from eight points of view.
Top billed but by no means top banana, Quaid plays a tense-jawed Secret Service agent. Thomas Barnes is just back from a long recuperation after taking a bullet in the line of fire when he’s called to be part of the detail protecting the president in Spain.
President Ashton (Hurt) is there to announce a landmark alliance in the war on terror.
***RATING | Political Thriller
When first we see Barnes, he’s eating pills, moving gingerly, looking worried. Some agents doubt he’s ready, though not Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox).
Standing on the podium, Barnes sees a flutter in a window. So, too, does American tourist Howard Lewis (Whitaker), who thinks he may have caught the events on his video camera.
In the minutes between the shot fired and the blast, Lewis calls his wife and children back home. The director makes poignant use of that moment, finding fatherly love and human vulnerability in Whitaker’s looming frame, drooping eye, strained voice.
Weaver plays a TV producer in bickering battle with a headstrong reporter (Zoë Saldana) about how to cover the event. “We’re here for the summit, not the sideshow,” she barks at her reporter.
“Not everybody loves us,” the reporter reminds her producer. Are the cherry-picked celebrants inside the plaza more real than the protesters calling the U.S. president a warmonger? When the shot comes, their heated exchanges turn briefly touching before coming to an abrupt silence.
Chaos ensues — over and over again. And each time the plume of debris creeps toward a camera gazing down on the plaza, the action begins again.
A new version brings fresh angles. Most shouldn’t be revealed here. Who is that Spanish cop really? What is his relation to a seemingly amorous couple saying goodbye on the edge of the crowd? Who is the stranger (Edgar Ramirez) who pleasantly engages the American tourist, who accidentally topples a little girl’s ice-cream cone?
It would be unhelpful, however, not to tell you that when the terrorists strike, the real Ashton is sequestered in a nearby hotel with his advisors (Bruce McGill and James Le Gros) who are trying to compel him to order a first strike in Morocco.
“Vantage Point” makes some compelling points about media, political will, national arrogance. But the screenplay lacks the fortitude to delve into all the points of view it teases. The motivation of the terrorists remains murky.
And a gunman’s motivations (French actor Saïd Taghmaoui) aren’t as they seem. It feels slightly chicken, too, to have cast Israeli star Ayelet Zurer (“Munich”) as the female terrorist.
None of this dilutes the adrenaline rushes. Travis keeps things moving.
But better directed than written, “Vantage Point” starts from a position of strength only to race through the streets of Salamanca, Spain, toward a foregone conclusion.
Film critic Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567 or lkennedy@denverpost.com. Also on blogs.denverpostcom/madmoviegoer
“Vantage Point”
PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, some disturbing images and brief strong language. 1 hour, 30 minutes. Directed by Pete Travis. Written by Barry L. Levy. Photography by Amir Mokri. Starring Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, Bruce McGill, Edgar Ramirez, Saïd Taghmaoui, Ayelet Zurer, Zoë Saldana, Sigourney Weaver and William Hurt. Opens today at area theaters.
